Hopefuls

A rainy evening kept Burbank Unified School District candidates in their homes Tuesday night, waiting for results that by press time had not been tallied. Though candidates didn't make it to City Hall, where the votes were being tallied, the rain didn't keep voters from dropping off their ballots, City Clerk Margarita Campos said. Candidate Roland Armstorff actually showed up briefly at City Hall Tuesday evening but went home to await results when he found out officials hadn't started counting ballots yet. "It turned out to be kind of a boring evening," he said.

BURBANK — Against odds of at least 12,000 to one, filmmakers in Burbank and Glendale are competing to get onto "On the Lot," a new reality show from director Steven Spielberg and producer/TV host Mark Burnett. Casting calls end this month for the Fox Network film-based reality show, which premieres live on May 22. When the cameras roll on the first episode of "On the Lot," 16 finalists will be in the running, charged with the task of producing new short films every week in a different genre.

The first round of Burbank’s municipal elections is through, and there are six candidates left standing. Mayor Dave Golonski and Councilman David Gordon will face off in the April 14 runoff election against four challengers — Jess Talamentes, Elise Stearns-Niesen, Kimberly Jo and Garen Yegparian — while Board of Education incumbents Larry Applebaum and Debbie Kutka have secured their seats on the dais again. Since Golonski and Gordon were the top two vote-getters in Tuesday’s primary, they appear poised to take two of the three open seats in April.

Josh Kleinbaum For 90 minutes Friday, three congressional hopefuls took aim at Adam Schiff in the first of three debates between the four candidates for the 29th District seat in the House of Representatives, painting the incumbent as a career politician who supports war and helps expand the scope of government. Schiff did not take the bait, focusing on his record and his plans for the future instead of giving direct answers to accusations from his challengers.

It was a disappointing 2010 campaign for the two area boys' water polo programs. Burbank High was able to secure the fourth and final CIF Southern Section Division V playoff spot from the Pacific League, but fell in the wild-card round against La Salle, 10-6. Burroughs wasn't able to earn a postseason spot, as the Indians finished sixth in league. The Indians did show promise late in the season, however, as they fell to the Bulldogs, 9-6, in the regular-season finale and almost defeated Arcadia, 8-7, in the consolation round of the Pacific League Tournament.

Fresh off the special election for the 43rd Assembly District in which Democrat Mike Gatto was projected to win, voters now have roughly four months to prepare for yet another ballot to decide who will fulfill the full two-year term. When the election in November is all said and done, voters will have been asked to cast their votes four times for the same seat in about six months — a process that some stakeholders have said contributes to voter fatigue and confusion. The election also had to compete with the Lakers' championship series game.

GLENDALE — Expect a grind whenever the Crescenta Valley and Burbank Junior Softball All-Star teams get together. Many of the teams' players have played each other many times throughout the regular season, so much so that Crescenta Valley Coach Will Thayer and Burbank Coach Albert Hernandez have come to expect a close encounter. The teams went through another chapter in their rivalry Thursday night. Torrey Johnson and Olivia Thayer each drove in a pair of runs to highlight a four-run fifth inning to help Crescenta Valley post a 9-5 victory against Burbank in the Little League District 16 championship game at Scholl Canyon Ball Fields.

GLENDALE — The Providence High boys' volleyball team definitely has motivation heading into the last few weeks of the regular season. Coming into Thursday's match with host Glendale Adventist Academy, the Pioneers were one match out of first place in the Liberty League and were attempting to stay in position to win a share of the league crown. For the Cougars, they have a less lofty goal. With a young team and many players who've never played competitive volleyball, Glendale Adventist just hopes to improve with each match and hopefully get some wins along the way. A win against a tough Providence team was just not in the cards for the Cougars, as they were only able to stay with the Pioneers early in the first two games and nearly pulled off a victory in the third.

It was a good 2010-11 season for three of the local girls' soccer programs, as Burbank, Burroughs and Providence highs all qualified for the CIF Southern Section playoffs. Two of the teams have new coaches this season. Eric Montoya, an assistant under Loi Phan, takes over the Bulldogs' program. At Burroughs, Eddie Garcia comes into the Indians' program for Louie Binda. Burbank and Burroughs are coming off seasons in which they stayed in the hunt for the Pacific League championship late into the year, only to see Crescenta Valley come on to take the title.

BURROUGHS HIGH — With just two Pacific League wins coming into Tuesday's match with Burroughs High, the Burbank girls' tennis team faced a crucial scenario. A loss to the cross-town rival Indians would all but extinguish the Bulldogs' hopes of making the postseason. Although the teams battled to a stalemate through the first of three rounds, Burbank was able to come on in the final round to complete a 10-8 league victory against visiting Burroughs. Burbank (4-7, 3-4 in league)

There's really no surprise that revenues are down at Burbank's Bob Hope Airport. I am an infrequent flier, and have utilized the Burbank airport for nearly 45 years. I recall the days when you could fly to most every major city out of Burbank Airport, non-stop. Now you must pay the same short-term parking rate as at Los Angeles International Airport, $31 per day. No wonder parking revenues are down. And you can no longer fly to many U.S. cities non-stop from Burbank. In fact, there are very few places you can get to non-stop.

For the first time in more than three years, the number of passengers at Bob Hope Airport increased in March - even if it was by only a slight uptick. A total of 333,647 passengers passed through the airport in March, a 0.27% increase from 332,740 from the same time last year, according to statistics released Monday to the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority. The slight improvement comes as a sharp contrast to the first two months of the year, when airfield officials reported double-digit declines in passengers.

Bob Hope Airport is welcoming a new commuter airline this month whose routes will connect the Imperial Valley to Los Angeles and beyond. On Wednesday, Portland, Ore.-based SeaPort Airlines launched its new slate of 12 non-stop, round-trip flights per week into Terminal A using nine-seat Cessna Caravan propeller planes. During May SeaPort is offering an introductory fare of $39 each way. SeaPort spokeswoman Claire James said that when SeaPort initiated plans to offer flights to San Diego out of Imperial County Airport, it became apparent there was local demand for flights to the Los Angeles area, too. The largest city in Imperial County is El Centro, with roughly 42,000 residents in the southeastern corner of the state, near the Mexican border.

It's been a rough two years for Bob Hope Airport, where a precipitous drop in the number of passengers using the regional airfield has meant a worrying drop in revenues. Fewer passengers mean fewer receipts at parking lots, concessions and other revenue-generating enterprises that fund operations and pay for badly needed infrastructure upgrades. Assuming what's good for the airport is good for the airlines, the solution seems simple. "If the airlines reduced their rates at Burbank and made it more competitive, there would be more passengers and we'd be in better shape; there's no mystery to this," said Terry Tornek, a member of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority.

To comply with the city of Burbank's requirement for public art, Bob Hope Airport needs to come up with an additional quarter-million dollars for its new transportation center. Airfield officials are hoping to raise the money through an ambitious plan for a new pavilion celebrating the local airport's history. The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority on Monday voted 7-1 to move forward with plans to spend the extra money on artwork in its transit center , which is currently under construction, and to raise those funds by selling naming rights in the new pavilion.

Security at Bob Hope Airport was ramped up on Monday until the nature of two explosions in Boston could be determined, a spokesman for the airfield said. Two explosions rocked the finish line area of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and causing dozens of injuries as of Monday afternoon, authorities reported. [Updated April 16, 2013 : This post was updated to reflect a higher number of casualities. ] Bob Hope Airport spokesman Victor Gill said security had been increased “and that's really all I can say about it until more is known.” “We are aware of [the Boston Marathon explosions]

This post has been corrected. See details below. The number of passengers traveling through Bob Hope Airport fell by double digits for the second straight month in February, dropping 11.6%. The airport handled 282,073 passengers in February, down from 309,259 in February 2012, according to statistics released Monday during a meeting of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority. The latest decline follows a 12% nosedive in January. That drop, which surprised airport staff, came after a year that saw a steady slide in passengers.

San Fernando Valley officials want the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority to prioritize connecting Bob Hope Airport with more public transit. The MTA Board passed a resolution Thursday to acknowledge a list of transportation priorities and projects put forth by the San Fernando Valley Council of Governments. Board members said MTA staff will prepare a report on their feasibility and status in 90 days. The list includes constructing a new Metrolink station on Hollywood Way, connecting the airport with existing train service to the Antelope Valley.

It has been a rough start to 2013 for a movie studio unaccustomed to taking one on the chin. And in this case, there has been more than one haymaker. Warner Bros. has released five films in a row that have underperformed at the box office, including "Jack the Giant Slayer," a roughly $195-million production that has flopped, tallying $55 million in domestic receipts after three weeks of release. The film's tepid performance and last weekend's disappointing opening for "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" mark an unusual rough patch for Warner Bros., which has historically been among the most successful studios.

Residents living near Bob Hope Airport who have been waiting to take advantage of a federally funded residential soundproofing program shouldn't wait any longer. After more than a decade and a half of installing new windows and doors in homes surrounding the airport, the eligible area for the soundproofing program is going to shrink, airport officials said during a Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority meeting on Monday. Due to quieter aircraft and fewer flights in general, the airport is projecting a much smaller noise-impact zone over the next five years - and that projection is used by the Federal Aviation Administration to determine which homeowners qualify for soundproofing projects.